As the bag bore no tags and no one claimed it, the officers opened the luggage to find six Smooth Coated Otters and five Oriental Small Clawed Otters inside. The otters, which look to be juveniles, will undergo health checks before being handed over to the Bang-Pra Breeding Center in Chonburi for care.

Throughout Southeast Asia, otters are disappearing from their former ranges thanks to high demand for the animals’ pelts and for their use as pets, wildmeat and traditional Chinese medicine. While officials have intersected otter skins before, this is the first time a bundle of live otters has been found at the airport.